Seasoned criminals know better than to leave a trail connecting them to their crime, so we’ve got to believe the suspects accused of robbing a Little League snack bar are hardly experienced when it comes to pilfering. Cops say they found the perps by following a sprinkling of snacks dropped on the ground.

Scenarios like this one bring to mind some kind of cartoon where the harebrained criminals are too busy munching on goodies to make a clean getaway. But this is real life, where real people can act like cartoons.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says cops arrested four people suspected of stealing from a Little League concession stand late Thursday night, after someone complained of hearing a lot of noise in the area.

When cops showed up, they found a nice little trail away from the scene, and simply followed empty packages of cookies, chips and Cheetos to a vehicle parked outside a home a few blocks away.

Cops searched the home and found property belonging to the Little League, including a cash register. They arrested one man, two women and a girl on burglary charges.

Motorcycle shop I used to work for rented a few mini storage units at a facility not far from us…and not far from “the projects.” Every once in a while, the storage facility would get a mass break-in – lots of units would get their locks cut off one night, with various contents thereafter pilfered, never to be seen again. The strong suspicion, of course, was that “the projects” was responsible – but there was never any evidence to really follow up on.

…then one day we got a call in the middle of winter. Break-in again, and this time they’d gotten into the unit we stored our extra scooters in.

Mind you that there was a couple feet of snow on the ground…so this time the genius thieves literally left a trail to be followed. Right to the projects. With 2-3 of our scooters dropped along the way, after they got tired of trying to carry them through 2′ deep snow.